Catching prospect Ivan Herrera and right-handed pitcher Max Rajcic were named Cardinals minor league player and minor league pitcher of the year, it was announced Friday.
Herrera, 23, is the second catcher to earn the organization’s player of the year honors. Only Herrera and Carson Kelly (2017) have done so.
A sixth-round pick in 2022, Rajcic, 22, joined Rick Ankiel (1998) and Anthony Reyes (2004) as the only three Cardinals prospects to win the award in their first professional season.
Coming off a 2022 season during which he made his major league debut and played in 65 Class AAA games, Herrera produced career-highs in doubles (27), average (.297), on-base percentage (.451), slugging percentage (.500), and OPS (.951) all while regularly producing hard contact and showing improvements from behind the plate.
For Cardinals minor leaguers with a minimum of 350 plate appearances, Herrera led in on-base percentage and walk rate (20.0%), per FanGraphs. He finished second in OPS. Compared to other catchers around Minor League Baseball, the 23-year-old had the fifth-most walks, the fourth-highest OPS, and a 147 weighted runs created plus that was the fourth-best.
People are also reading…
Herrera finished the minor league season with a .991 fielding percentage in 64 games from behind the plate and thwarted 12 of the 59 base stealing attempts against him.
While in the majors this year, Herrera batted .297 and produced a .409 on-base percentage in 13 games when he was called up as an injury fill-in. The strong impressions he made during his call-up in early July earned him an extended stay in the majors as he demonstrated strides in his preparation to catch games and in working with pitchers.
A native of Panama, Herrera became the seventh Latin-born player to win the Cardinals organizational player of the year award.
“I always go back home and work as hard as I can because it's going to show,†Herrera said at Busch Stadium during the final weekend of the regular season. “I still feel good. I feel healthy. Everything is going well. I played in I don't know how many games, but that's a lot of games for a catcher.â€
In his first season in the minors, Rajcic (pronounced like "magic) went 9-6 with a 2.48 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP over 123 1/3 innings. The former sixth-round pick struck out 123 batters in 23 starts and walked 27 batters while keeping Class High-A and Class Low-A hitters to a combined .217 average.
The 23-year-old was named the Cardinals minor league pitcher of the month in Juneand August as well as receiving Florida State League pitcher of the year honors after he had a 1.89 ERA, 68 strikeouts, and walked nine batters in 62 innings while in Class Low-A.
“I think it's been good. I've learned a lot throughout the course of the year,†Rajcic said during a phone interview in August. “… It's the most inning I've thrown. I think I threw like 85 at UCLA, and I think I'm around like 110 or something like that. Just learning to keep a routine and sticking to the routine. Just keeping your body ready to go every five or six days.â€
Utilizing a four-pitch mix that includes a changeup, curveball, slider, and a fastball that can get up to 95 mph, Rajcic posted the best ERA among qualified pitchers in the Cardinals system. He had the third-best WHIP and 12th-best walk rate (5.5%) among all minor league pitchers with a minimum of 120 innings, according to FanGraphs.
The 2022 draftee out of UCLA whom the Cardinals paid over-slot to sign debuted for Peoria in a late-June with a start that included 6 2/3 innings and two runs allowed. He posted a 5.23 ERA over his next four starts through July then followed that by posting 1.55 ERA in August — a stretch that began with 13 consecutive scoreless innings in his first two starts that month.
Following a final start for Peoria to begin September, Rajcic delivered six innings of one-run ball and earned a win for Peoria in Game 1 of the Midwest League Division Series. Once Peoria was eliminated from the Midwest League playoffs, Rajcic was promoted to Class AA Springfield for its playoff run and allowed one run in three innings of relief in his only appearance for Springfield.